While wearing worn or dirty protective clothing is a source of pride for many firefighters, wearing unkempt or poorly maintained equipment is not recommended for the safety of responders.
Here’s why it is essential to follow the protocols for each type of PPE and how to wash your firefighter gloves.
Why pay attention to the cleaning of firefighting PPE?
Ensuring optimal protection
Firefighters’ outfits are intricately assembled and each PPE has specific needs and requirements, and therefore special treatment.
Proper cleaning and drying of each PPE item ensures that all components remain effective and that their protective attributes are not destroyed.
Similarly, PPE should be carefully examined after washing and drying to assess the level of wear and tear of each piece of equipment and to make any necessary repairs.
Finally, firefighters’ PPE beyond maintenance can be contaminated by toxic fumes following a fire. In this context, the decontamination process associated with washing is essential for the health of the firefighter.
Ensuring a better return on investment
Because PPE is an investment, maintaining firefighting gloves and other equipment is a prerequisite for extending their life.
While cleaning equipment at the fire station saves time, you can turn to specialist laundries and professionals who can clean and repair your protective clothing.
Rostaing PPE for firefighters is particularly durable and does not need to be replaced too regularly. In fact, with careful maintenance, it is possible to go beyond several washes. The average life of a fire glove is about 2 years.
Follow the life cycle of the PPE
In the event of an incident, it is essential to know the entire history of the PPE, whether it is a pair of gloves, a fire suit or an intervention jacket.
Indeed, knowing how many times the suit has been washed and according to what protocol, or how many times it has been repaired, can help determine the causes of any burns.
Indeed, it is essential to trace and reference the PPE maintenance process in order to prove that the equipment is properly maintained and offers firefighters optimal protection.
How to wash your firefighting gloves?
We help you to set up your method for cleaning and decontaminating your PPE. Please note that we offer this consultancy service for the maintenance and reform of gloves for fire stations:
Primary decontamination
The decontamination process begins at the site of the intervention, once it has been completed. The aim is to leave as much dirt as possible on site:
- Brush off any debris on the glove
- Air or rinse the glove
When returning from the operation, a second cleaning is necessary:
- Brush the glove with a sponge and soapy water
- Leave the glove to dry in the open air
Cleaning the gloves
After the primary decontamination, the gloves can be washed in a washing machine to continue the decontamination process. When washing gloves, it is preferable not to mix soiled items with unsoiled items.
All our type C products are certified after 1 or 10 washes (check of the maintenance of mechanical and thermal performances according to EN 659 before & after washing).
The washing temperature varies according to the type of product.
For more information on the specificities of textile, textile/leather and leather gloves, please contact our experts.
Drying gloves
There are three options for drying your gloves:
- Air drying: long and requiring ventilation (spin-drying recommended) ;
- Tumble dry: with synthetic or delicate programme (max 60°C) ;
- Drying in a drying cabinet: after primary decontamination or machine washing, this is an effective and hygienic solution. Indeed, the ozone generated by the cabinet allows a virucidal, bactericidal and fungicidal treatment (ROSTAING x Novven partnership for an optimal drying solution).
CO2 decontamination process
At ROSTAING, we offer a range of products resistant to the supercritical CO2 decontamination process. This method enables your products to be decontaminated in depth.
This treatment is virucidal, bactericidal and fungicidal and improves the prevention of risks linked to the toxicity of fumes soaked into PPE by eliminating large contaminating particles: Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH).
If you wish to decontaminate your products with a CO2 solution, please contact the sales representative who manages your file for more information.
Would you like to know more about our product ranges for the fire brigades? Consult our 2022 catalogue pour découvrir l’ensemble de nos gants de protection EPI.
To find out more about our services for firefighters or for any other question about our offer and our products, our product engineers are at your disposal: product@rostaing.fr.
Would you like to place an order or become a ROSTAING dealer? Let us know at commercial@rostaing.fr.
